New York, October 10, 2024—The Cameroonian government should end its threats to sanction private media journalists who report on the condition and whereabouts of President Paul Biya, 91, who has not been seen publicly for over a month and has missed scheduled international engagements, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday.
“The Cameroonian government should simply put the rumors to rest by arranging a public appearance by the head of state,“ said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “The health of the president, who has been in power for 41 years and may seek re-election next year, is of public interest. Any misguided attempt to censor reporting about his health for national security reasons simply fuels rampant speculation.”
In an October 9 letter to regional governors, reviewed by CPJ, Cameroon’s Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji said any debate in the media about Biya’s health was strictly prohibited following official government denials that the president is in ill health, and offenders would face the full might of the law.
Nji, the permanent secretary of Cameroon’s national security council, ordered the governors to create monitoring units in their departments to track and record all broadcasts and debates in private and on social media to identify the culprits.
His letter follows official denials about the president’s condition by the director of the civil cabinet Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, and Communication Minister and government spokesman Rene Sadi, who said Biya was in excellent health and would return to Cameroon in the next few days.
Biya, Cameroon’s president since 1982, and the second-longest serving head of state in Africa after Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, has not indicated whether he plans to stand for re-election in the central African country’s 2025 race, though there are calls from within the ruling party and allied politicians for him to pursue an eighth term.